How do the Japanese make a very nicely molded Vehicon more awesome? By giving him wings!

Ok that’s not quite right. There were flying Vehicons throughout all the seasons of Transformers Prime, but somehow only the Jet Vehicon figure made it in the Takara Tomy Arms Micron toyline for the said TV series.

So who’s better and who’s worse?

Flying Car Mode

Jet Vehicon is designed as the general-looking plain black car which was R.I.D. Vehicon. Some mold changes in certain parts of the car and addition of wings turn this entire package into Jet Vehicon which looks close to the screen counterpart.

On its own, it looks quite nice and the flying car concept design was pulled off quite safely and greatly. It is advisable to add the stickers or most of them to add more finishing touches to the already bland looking figure.

Vehicon & Jet Vehicon – Alt Mode Comparisons

Lots of Arms Micron pegholes can be found throughout the figure, and some are obviously visible on the wings. Thus you can equip this baddie with loads of weaponry if you so choose. Speaking about weapons, he comes with a nicely molded sniper rifle that converts into a blocky and brick-ish Iguana. The clear plastic crystal with the Decepticon logo, and additions of stickers do wonders to the plain looking weapon/animal.

M-17 Igu – Iguana Mode

(Note: The Takara Tomy Arms Micron toyline makes use of most of the figures from the R.I.D. toyline, remolded a little to house more pegholes to put the Arms Microns, and also comes with said Arms Microns which are weapons that convert into blocky and brick-ish animals.)

So overall, the car mode is cool looking and very nice!

Transformation

Simple yet fun transformation, and almost 100% similar to Vehicon’s transformation. Although, transforming the wings can be quite difficult due to low clearances to move the wings around.

Robot Mode

Jet Vehicon – Gesturing

If Vehicon looked bad ass, Jet Vehicon looks even more bad ass! It’s as if Vehicon himself took a load of Dark Energon and grew some wings, and has Dark Energon flowing through him (hint: nice light purple colours instead of blue). Well, that’s my thought on the figure’s first impression.

Upon closer inspection it is notable that retooling has been done to the forearms and shoulders, and the leg armour consisting of jet wings instead of car wheels. These differences add some variety in Jet Vehicon and make him stand out as a very good figure on his own. The light pink colours work quite well on the figure too, and help to differentiate him from Vehicon with his blue colours.

Jet Vehicon – Aiming

Jet Vehicon’s posability is almost similar to Vehicon’s, except that now with the wing pieces in place, there will be some hampered posability. Also, one negative thing is that there is a piece of plastic sticking out behind Jet Vehicon’s head, which was folded all the way back on the regular Vehicon. The fault lies in the wing design which offers no room for the plastic piece to fold backwards all the way. It’s a minor fault and doesn’t ruin the figure’s looks too much at all.

You could also attach the large gun/Iguana (M-17 Igu) into Jet Vehicon’s hands and make him look greater. Takara Tomy has turned Vehicon into a flying sniper! Watch out everybody! M-17 Igu requires some assembling work but it is very easy and nowhere near the complications of assembling a Gundam figure. He is unfortunately 1 plain colour – black. The thing about these Microns in the Arms Microns toyline is that they’re generally made of a single coloured plastic, but a sticker sheet is provided to improve the asthetics of the little micron, or you can not opt for the stickers and paint it up yourself. It’s been said that the Japanese like to self-customise their toys and figures, hence why Takara Tomy came up with the Arms Microns idea. It works.

Vehicon & Jet Vehicon – Robot Mode Comparisons

Comparing Jet Vehicon next to Vehicon, it appears firsthand that Jet Vehicon is the nicer of the two and also having the more sleek weapon. But looking at them longer will get you to realize that, there really isn’t a competition here. Both Vehicons are distinct, unique, fun and enjoyable in their own respective ways. And so, both are equally awesome figures in my opinion and of course, Jet Vehicon is highly recommended! Heck, get both versions of Vehicon even if you do not plan on buying any Vehicon or do not plan on making a Vehicon army.